CONCORDIAN - Concordia Company

the
CONCORDIAN
A newsletter for lovers of Concordia yachts
SPRING 2015, Number 58
C. Raymond Hunt
The Sailor Who Could See the Wind
NOTES
2
What a winter. As I write this, there are still drifts over the
spar rack by the side of my house so I have not been able to
pass the spars through the shop for their annual varnishing.
Hope they melt soon ‘cause I’m way behind.
It’s been four years since I took over this editorship so
perhaps it’s time for an update and reassessment. First, I’m
still having fun putting this together and I hope you are having
as much fun reading it. I appreciate the kind notes that indicate
that you do enjoy reading about the rest of the fleet. So let’s
keep doing it.
Second, I also appreciate the financial support you’ve made
to the newsletter. When I took over, it was a money losing
proposition with about one quarter of the owners supporting
it and a rather large list of freebies being sent out. Now about
three quarters of you support the newsletter with another fifty
or so friends of the fleet subscribers.
I’ve tried to make the Concordian something you want to
read and keep and therefore are willing to support. I’ve also
gotten rather grumpy when shaking some of you down. Sorry.
But it worked. So thanks.
I got an MFA in grad school, not an MBA, so dealing with
money is at times foreign to me so if I misplace your check
or don’t cash if for a few months or forget to log your annual
contribution, let me know and we’ll work it out.
As I’ve said in the past, keeping the spreadsheet up-to-date
is the hardest part of this job. But even that is getting better.
The last issue had no copies returned as undeliverable and the
recent mass email message had only one bounced address. If
I still do not have your email address, send it to me! jeide@
meca.edu Right now! Messaging you by email is so much
easier for all of us.
But following that plea, thirdly, you may remember in
my first issue I indicated that I’d like to move to an on-line
interactive publication after the 75th. We can’t do it. There are
still a large number of loyal owners who do not use email, or
even have computers. I have to respect these owners. I also
have to respect the wishes of many more of you who want to
read and keep the Concordian in a hard copy version. “My
wife and I climb in bed and read the Concordian....” is one
note I got. OKaayy.... Whatever.
Next, send me your text submissions as an email. No Word
doc. or pdf or attachment or anything other than an email. I
can then format it in seconds and have it ready to paste up.
Send photos as an attachment in the largest file size you can.
300ppi or bigger. Bigger the better. I can handle it.
Finally, start chatting among yourselves to find a new
editor. Golondrina will be going on the market in a few
years and when she sells, I will no longer want to edit the
Concordian.
In this issue
As you can tell from the cover, there’s a bit of looking back
in this issue. And looking forward. At long last, a biography
of Ray Hunt is nearing completion. Written by Stan Grayson,
A Genius at His Trade looks at all his creations from sail to
power and more. Hopefully Llewellyn Howland’s introduction
and excerpts from Chapter 13 on the creation of Harrier will
entice you to seek out this forthcoming book. Backed by the
New Bedford Whaling Museum, the book will be available
this fall. Tied in with the publication of the Hunt book is a
campaign by the Museum to raise funds for the purchase of
the 1/3 scale model of a Concordia for their collection. Keep
reading for all the details.
I first met Louie Howland at the relaunching of Kestrel and
during our conversation, I asked about the original owners
of our boats. What he began relating was too much to take in
during that event so we made plans to meet for a much longer
discussion. For this Midwest to New England transplant,
I found this social and economic history to be especially
fascinating as these elements came together to create our
boats.
The cover photograph is of Harrier racing on Buzzard’s
Bay, from, A Genius at his Trade. Yan is at the helm, Ray is
trimming the ‘chute with Barbara to windward, Josh on the
leeward cockpit winch, Sham on the house top and Kate either
forward of the mast or below. The photo is by Norman Fortier,
courtesy the New Bedford Whaling Museum. His photographs
also accompany my interview with Louie Howland and his
entire archive is housed at the Museum. You can see all his
work at http://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/collections/
database/search-photographs
The Sailor Who Could See the Wind was Stan Grayson’s
working title for the Hunt book.
J ohn Eid e
•Thanks to the W. & L. Howland Insurance Agency, Inc. for underwriting a portion of the production cost of the Concordian.
The W. & L. Howland Insurance Agency has been insuring yachts since 1936. They are located at 962 Kempton Street, New
Bedford, MA 02740 and can be reached at: 508.992.7731 or 800.848.7731; or email yachts@wlhowland.com
•Thanks also to an anonymous member of the fleet for underwriting a portion of our production costs.
The following is excerpted from Louie Howland’s introduction to
A Genius at His Trade, the soon to be published biography of Ray Hunt by
Stan Grayson.
Forward
The world of sport can be a place of unrelenting partisanship
and unforgiving competition. Sometimes even winning is
not sufficient for victory. Sometimes there is triumph even in
defeat. In this marvelously readable biography of legendary
20th century yacht designer and racing sailor C. Raymond
Hunt (1908 - 1978), historian Stan Grayson takes the full
and fascinating measure of a largely self-taught American
genius whose lack of formal education was both a gateway to
invention and a continuing source of inner conflict and selfdoubt.
Although Hunt was born and introduced to competitive
sailing in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and earned his first yachtracing fame in competition off Marblehead, his career as a
yacht designer developed in association with lifelong Buzzards
Bay sailor Waldo Howland. It was for Waldo Howland’s father
in South Dartmouth that Hunt drew the lines for the now
famous Concordia 39-foot cruising-racing yawl. In the same
period Hunt also designed Dartmouth summer resident Hendon
Chubb’s unbeatable big schooner Victoria, and the superlative
small cruising sloop Kestrel for Dr. Harry Forbes of Naushon.
Hunt and his young family lived in Fairhaven
while Hunt worked with the Wamsutta Mills on
sail cloth development before World War II. He
returned to South Dartmouth to live a few years
before his death in 1978.
With his novel fin-keel 110 and 210 onedesign sloops, Ray Hunt put competitive
small-boat racing within reach for post-World
War II sailors who could not readily afford
conventionally designed and built daysailers. In
the immediate postwar years, Hunt also began
intensive development of advanced vee-bottom
powerboat hulls that included the prodigious
42-foot, 46-knot flier Sea Blitz for Bradley
Noyes in 1949 and the ever-popular Boston
Whaler—and that led in time to the iconic
22- and 24-degree deep-vee hulls that remain a
dominant worldwide force in powerboat design
nearly sixty years later. Had Hunt been able
to patent the deep-vee hull forms, his fortune
would have been made. The patents were denied
on a technicality.
Meanwhile and all the while, sometimes
in boats to his own break-through design,
sometimes in boats their previous owners
believed were no longer competitive, Ray Hunt
continued to compete successfully in sailing
races locally, nationally, and internationally,
both on- and off-soundings, against the world’s
top sailors. When Hunt, sailing the Concordia
41 sloop Harrier with his family as crew, swept
the fleet at Cowes Week in the summer of 1955,
he seemed, like the Concordia class he had done so much to
create, altogether invincible.
That Hunt was not invincible is a necessary and very
moving part of the story that Stan Grayson tells so powerfully
in A Genius at His Trade: C. Raymond Hunt and His
Remarkable Boats. That recreational sailors and boaters and
working watermen throughout the world continue to seek out
and use boats designed by him is a tribute not just to his own
genius, but to the vital knowledge and experience he gained
during the years he sailed on Buzzards Bay.
The trustees, staff, and membership of the New Bedford
Whaling Museum/Old Dartmouth Historical Society are
deeply grateful to Stan Grayson for writing A Genius at His
Trade: C. Raymond Hunt and His Remarkable Boats, and to
C. Raymond Hunt Associates, to Ray Hunt’s own family, and
to many generous friends of the designer and the museum for
their help in bringing this biography into being. The book is
the third that the New Bedford Whaling Museum has published
in recent years that relates to the yachting history of the South
Coast of Massachusetts. But its concerns and appeal are truly
international, and it does much to demonstrate how successive
generations of sailors and designers contribute to the
advancement of one of the world’s most exciting and absorbing
pastimes.
LLewellyn H owlan d III
3
The Sensation of Cowes
The following is excerpted from Chapter 13 of A Genius at His Trade, the
soon to be published biography of Ray Hunt by Stan Grayson.
4
As always, Raymond had his eye on many projects during
the first half of 1953. Perhaps the one that garnered the most
notice was a new 41-footer designed under the auspices of
Concordia for Henry “Harry” Sears, who was then vicecommodore of the New York Yacht Club and owner of a
modified Concordia Yawl. Sears, who had made his fortune in
investments and real estate, really was to the manor born when
it came to yachting.
Harry Sears was born in 1913, and, by his early twenties,
was racing in Marblehead—first as a sail trimmer aboard
Charles Francis Adams’s Q boat and soon enough as skipper
of his own Frank Paine–designed 50-footer. She was named,
as all his boats would be, Actaea (sea nymph). These activities
brought Sears into contact with Ray Hunt, while Waldo
Howland met Sears and his friends through a network of
business and then social acquaintances. “I took it as a real
compliment,” Howland wrote in A Life in Boats, “when they
invited me to join them for the 1938 Bermuda Race aboard
the second Actaea [a 64-foot sloop built by Henry Nevins to
more official drawings of the 41 were prepared, Fenwick
Williams’s name was added.
“It was the same genetic material as the 39,” said Llewellyn
Howland III, who knows both boats well. During his collegeyears summers, Howland crewed aboard Sears’s new Actaea.
Later he sailed on the Concordia 41 Banda, built for and
originally owned by Eugene W. “Bill” Stetson, and then
with George Hinman, who bought the boat from Stetson
and renamed her Sagola. “Incidentally,” he noted, “George
Hinman was a wonderful man. He never yelled as some did,
and he was thoughtful about design. So was Stetson. Ray
interpreted their input into his design work.”
Looking back on the early 1950s racing scene, Howland
remembered: “You had the Owens cutters that were
astoundingly fast in relation to the rules. That influenced Ray
in the design of the 41. That’s really how the 41 was born.
But it turned out the Owenses were cheaters. They weighed
less than the claimed spec and when that was discovered, their
rating went up by 2½.” As one dramatic event in particular
would soon prove, there would be no rating surprises for the
41.
[T]he performance of Harrier was possibly even more remarkable
because she was crewed by the owner’s wife and children.
—Yachting World, Power and Sail, September 1955
a Sparkman & Stephens design and later owned by Henry
Morgan who renamed her Djinn].”
The war, of course, intervened in all this, but, after
commanding a cargo ship and later the destroyer escort USS
Pillsbury in the Pacific, Sears resumed his yachting with vigor.
Recalling the postwar period, Howland wrote, “For Concordia
Company in general and me in particular, Actaea and her
skipper opened up a whole new world of opportunities. Over a
period of 25 years, Harry included me on a goodly number of
New York Yacht Club cruises, and he owned and raced during
that period three different Concordia ‘yawls,’ each of which he
sailed with sloop rigs.”
The first of these “non-yawls” was the Concordia 39, in
which Sears had won the Navy Challenge Cup in her class
on the 1952 New York Yacht Club cruise. Sears had removed
the mizzenmast, lengthened the boom by a foot and a half,
and added a bowsprit. Now, though, Sears began discussions
with Raymond that soon led to the design and construction
of an entirely new yacht. The Concordia 41 would be a boat
“The new design,” wrote Joe Gribbins in Concordia Yawls:
The First 50 Years, “paid attention to the CCA rule and, by
increasing waterline length, beam and freeboard, obtained a
lower rating than the 39. . . . The new hull [Ray] drew up had
a slightly higher freeboard and thus a slightly longer deck than
the 39, greater draft of about two inches, which lengthened
the waterline, and more weight in the form of heavier teak
planking below the waterline and a few other structural
modifications that would bring weight down in ways that
worked around a rule that exacted a penalty of weight added
to a ballast keel. On paper, this 41-footer promised to rate 28.2
versus the first [Concordia] Actaea’s 29.2
Raymond was aboard Actaea for one of her first races
during the New York Yacht Club’s cruise in early August
of 1953. This short leg of the cruise ran from Padanaram
to Marion, a brief tune-up in which the new boat finished
second on corrected time to Phil Benson’s Graves-built
Shoaler named Wassail. She was sailed by Linc Davis, who
had previously chartered her, and an experienced crew.
Waldo Howland celebrated the win with a new Concordia ad.
whose lines and dimensions were shaped far more by rating
rules than the earlier Concordia Yawl’s had been. Reflecting
the geographical reality then in effect between Hunt and
Howland, the new boat’s drawings credited C. Raymond Hunt,
Marblehead, and Waldo Howland, Padanaram. Later, when
Wassail, the smallest and least-expensive boat in the fleet,
won three legs of the cruise and was the high-point boat at
the time she departed the event. If anything, the performance
only reinforced Raymond’s concept for a shallow-draft
centerboarder.
As for the new Concordia design, John Ahern, summing
up the 1953 season, reported: “Ray Hunt himself garnered
other honors on the runs. He sailed aboard Harry Sears’s new
Actaea, a cutter he designed. It didn’t win a major cup. But it
finished first on percentage for the entire cruise, which hit ports
all the way from New London to Bar Harbor.
The following summer, Ray would be aboard Actaea again
during the Eastern Yacht Club cruise, winning the ocean race
from Marblehead to Boothbay Harbor and the shorter race the
following day.
On June 22, 1955, the Globe reported: “Actaea . . . beat out
the bigger boats today for the Blue Water Bowl and top honors
in the 446 mile biennial ocean race from New London, Conn.
to Annapolis.” Waldo Howland celebrated the win with a new
Concordia ad.
At some point, probably mid-to-late 1954, Ray Hunt decided
to buy what would prove to be his only new, big sailboat.
Selling both Zara and Janet, he ordered a new Concordia 41 to
be built at Abeking & Rasmussen.
“Having a German company that he knew did quality work
build his new boat,” said Hunt’s daughter Yan, “was quite an
event for Pop.”
Needless to say, Raymond gave every detail of his boat’s
rig careful thought, and the rig differed from that of other
Concordias. With a hoist of 44 feet and a foot of 22 feet,
the mainsail was larger than the usual, and a five-foot metal
bowsprit/pulpit served as attachment point for the various jibs.
Waldo Howland described some of the rig’s features in A Life
in Boats: The Concordia Years. He noted that the mainsheet
was “trimmed to the afterdeck and running backstays anchored
at chainplates. (In a way, these runners were more efficient in
achieving a taut headstay than were slides on tracks.)”
The opportunity for another Hunt family adventure of even
grander proportions than the Bahamas voyage now presented
itself. Raymond flew to Germany and, when the family arrived
on the liner Berlin, he met them with a rented Volkswagen van.
While the Hunts’ new boat was being completed, the family
stayed in a hotel in the old village of Delmenhorst, south of
Lemwerder in Lower Saxony. From there, they could make
15-year-old Kate
broke a bottle of
champagne on the
cradle. “I christen thee
Harrier,” she said.
As soon as the
boat was launched
and her mast stepped,
Harrier was moved
to a dock area where
Loading Harrier, in the Basin.
yachts were tied up.
Now began the task of bending on the main and loading sail
bags and cartons of provisions. A big yachtsman anchor was
securely stowed in chocks on the foredeck, and the beautiful
and useful lapstrake pram dinghy that accompanied each new
Concordia was stowed. Eventually, Harrier was ready for
departure. The first leg of her journey took the yacht down
the Weser River to the North Sea and out to the island of
Helgoland, 55 miles off the coast.
“We saw all kinds of ships sunk during the war that had yet
to be removed,” Sham Hunt remembered. “We saw wrecked
buildings and submarine pens.”
Helgoland, with its bomb-scarred naval base, had been
returned to German control by the British in 1952, just two and
a half years earlier. The island, warmed by the Gulf Stream,
was then taking the first steps in the process of becoming the
popular tourist destination it is today. Harrier then made the
passage to Ijmuiden, Holland, where a canal led inland to
Amsterdam. In strange waters, Raymond kept Harrier well
offshore of the German and Dutch Frisian Islands, a region of
tidal channels and sandbars that extend far out from the land.
Only via passages—Gats—between the islands could
mainland harbors be reached. Today, sailing directions warn:
“These Gats should not be entered at night and it is dangerous
to enter under fresh to strong onshore winds and it is even
impossible to do so in stormy conditions. . . . Don’t trust a
buoy in breaking seas.” These were the dangerous, wild places
romanticized by Erskine Childers in his salty, pre–World War I
spy story, The Riddle of the Sands.
OH, I SAY . . . , read The Skipper magazine’s headline, WELL SAILED!
day trips to busy Hamburg, tour the quiet and lovely farm
country around them, have lunch at the Weser Yacht Club, and
occasionally check on
the progress of their
boat.
At 6:30 a.m. on the
morning of July 13,
1955, the new 41 in her
launching cradle was
wheeled out of A&R’s
construction shop onto
the marine railway.
As Raymond—
Kate Hunt searching for the champagne bottle
wearing coat and tie,
neck after the christening. See Concordian
number 53, page 27.
of course—watched,
After visiting Amsterdam, the Hunts returned to the North
Sea and sailed down the English Channel to Dover, continuing
to what is perhaps the world’s most famous yachting venue,
Cowes. Here, to starboard as one enters the Fairway leading to
the River Medina, stands the Royal Yacht Squadron’s fabled
Castle. Close by are the grounds of Northwood House, where
Queen Victoria had enjoyed summer visits and a private beach
with Prince Albert and their children.
Everything about Cowes is outsize, including Cowes Week,
which is actually eight days long. The Royal Yacht Britannia
was on hand for the upcoming festivities, and the Duke of
Edinburgh was there to compete in the International Dragon
class in his Bluebottle. In 1955, 12 regattas were sailed,
overseen by several different yacht clubs, and boats from seven
different countries competed. Raymond had entered Harrier
5
6
in six races as well as the Fastnet Race, which follows Cowes
Week. Having navigated from Germany to England through
notoriously challenging waters with compass, charts, taffrail
log, and his instincts, Ray Hunt felt not the slightest anxiety
about racing for the first time in the strong tidal streams at
Cowes.
“His attitude,” said Yan, “was always ‘whatever happens,
we’ll take care of it.’”
What happened at Cowes in early August that year was
somewhat unusual. Instead of cloudy skies, there was bright
and pleasant sunshine. Instead of strong and often chilly
winds, there were light or moderate breezes. The conditions
had more in common with the East Coast of the United States
than with England.
“For several years,” reported Yachting World in its write-up
of that year’s Cowes Week, “the English summer has produced
a high proportion of moderate to fresh winds and there has
been a growing tendency to build yachts with small sail
areas and to cut down the sail area of existing boats. A small
sail area, if it is sensibly proportioned, earns a considerable
reduction in rating and a yacht with this small area suffers only
in light airs. Thus, with light airs for most of the week, some
of our ocean racing yachts appeared to be in a different race
from some of the foreign yachts. Carina II (Richard S. Nye) a
36 ft. 3 in L.W.L. yawl designed by Philip Rhodes and Harrier
(C. Raymond Hunt) a 29 ft. 6 in. sloop designed by the owner,
were both American, both big beamy yachts with large sail
areas and they were both outstandingly successful.”
The magazine’s journalist quickly noted Raymond’s interest
in sails and reported that Harrier’s welded-steel bowsprit
“allowed her to set an enormous light weather synthetic-fibre
spinnaker which the crew managed to keep full when most
of the other yachts’ spinnakers were hanging in listless folds.
The type of keenness which includes lying along the weather
deck when the yacht is on the wind, and the beautiful set of
her sails, undoubtedly helped in her success, but the primary
reason was that she is the right type of boat for the conditions
which were experienced at Cowes this year; a type of boat
Raymond bolstered his crew. The boat was joined by Jess
Bontecou, his brother-in-law Reese Harris, and their friend Bill
MacDougal. By now, Harrier’s success was such that Raymond
found himself embarrassed. He was racing in Class III, for boats
with an under-27-foot rating, and he asked the Royal Ocean
Racing Club to be moved up to a larger class. The request was
denied. Wednesday, August 3, brought a light-to-moderate
northerly, and Harrier finished 20 minutes ahead of the secondplace boat. Ultimately, Harrier won all six races in which she
sailed.
OH, I SAY . . . , read The Skipper magazine’s headline, WELL
SAILED!
It might be noted that the conditions at Cowes not only
challenged Raymond’s light-air skills in an entirely new boat he
had never before raced, but they also required him to somehow
develop an immediate sense of the tidal currents in the Solent—
the stretch of water between the mainland and the Isle of
Wight—that were already familiar to the British skippers. The
locals were so impressed by what Raymond had accomplished
that they presented him with a clock and barometer. Its engraved
plaque read: “This clock and barometer was presented to C.
Raymond Hunt by the Solent Clubs Racing Association with
his yacht Harrier during Cowes week 1955 when he and his
‘crew’ won 6 races in 6 successive days against more than 20
competitors each
When the Providence Journal recounted Hunt’s achievement
on October 2, it reported that Harrier “went so fast and outsailed
her British rivals so thoroughly that there were demands from
some quarters that she be remeasured before the Fastnet.
Obviously, someone had the idea that her rating was too low.”
The request was deemed a waste of time by the official measurer
of the RORC, but, on the day before the start of the Fastnet, the
deed was done. In its article on the race in October, Yachting
reported: “[T]he Island Sailing Club [Cowes] rocked with
laughter when it was divulged that the final, ultra-official and
completely authentic measurement by the granddaddy of all
measurers had reduced Harrier’s rating from 25.52 to 24.78.”
The Providence Journal noted: “You can imagine how many red
“You can imagine how many red faces there were in some places. . . .
She’s a going boat and Hunt is a first-class skipper.”
The Providence Journal
rarely seen this side of the Atlantic in conditions which we had
not had for many years.
The racing commenced on July 30, and Harrier won her
class by a 10-minute margin. The division of labor aboard
Harrier had Raymond as skipper assisted by Barbara and
Yan; Sham was responsible for the spinnaker and Joshua for
the genoa. Kate was bow-lookout and lay to leeward of the
genoa, calling out dangers on the crowded racecourse. On the
following day, light winds prevailed once more, and Harrier
won by eight minutes over the second-place yacht, which was
considered a good light-air boat by British standards. Harrier’s
third race was sailed in a light westerly and she finished 25
minutes ahead of the next boat.
For the fifth race, and for the Fastnet that would follow,
faces there were in some places. . . . She’s a going boat and Hunt
is a first-class skipper.”
There now remained the 608-mile race from Cowes to Fastnet
Rock and back to Plymouth. Harrier was among a record entry
that included 48 yachts. Harrier’s performance in this event
threatened to be even more spectacular than her series of wins at
Cowes. By the time the Hunts had reached the rock-lined coast
at the Lizard at the tip of England, Yachting reported that she
“had saved her time on Carina and all eventual placers. But the
next day as she approached Fastnet Rock, Harrier suffered the
failure of a turnbuckle for one of the portside lower shrouds.
A crack in the casting of a starboard turnbuckle was also
discovered.”
“There was no sea or wind to speak of when it failed,” Jess
7
Harrier ready for launch, at Abeking and Rasmussen
Bontecou wrote in Concordia Yawls: The First Fifty Years,
“however, we had no replacement and had to drop out of the
race.”
It was an ironic failure. Raymond had brought with him
from the States the bronze turnbuckles that, it turned out, were
poorly made. Harrier put into Kinsale, a port on the Irish coast,
and replaced his boat’s problem fittings with what he told
Yachting were “substantial looking galvanized turnbuckles.”
Harrier’s racing season was now over. While the needed
repairs were being made at Kinsale, Barbara, Yan, Josh, and
Kate went to London. They rejoined the boat in Plymouth
and Harrier then sailed up the coast, exploring the Beaulieu
River, where they went birdwatching. As always, Raymond
was a close observer of nature. “He wasn’t interested, say, in
warblers,” said Jess Bontecou, “but all the birds of the sea and
how the seasons impacted their migrations—those were things
that he made note of.”
Finally, the Hunts began making their way back toward
Sweden, where Harrier would be loaded aboard a ship for
the trip home. Their first leg was from Dover to the German
island of Borkum in the North Sea, and it proved to be a rough,
310-mile, three-night passage. “It was the first time we all
took Dramamine to help with seasickness,” Yan remembered.
“Mother and Josh suffered especially, so this was a big help.
Pop never got seasick and he could stay awake and alert for as
long as necessary. Normal humans just can’t do that.” Harrier
passed through the Kiel Canal and sailed up the east coast
of Denmark to Copenhagen, where the Hunts toured the city
and photographed the imposing Gefion Fountain and Edvard
Eriksen’s famous Little Mermaid statue.
Finally it was on through the Kattegat to Goteborg, Sweden,
where Sham and Josh lowered Harrier’s colors for the last
time. The yacht was hoisted aboard a ship for the voyage to
New York and Raymond flew home to prepare for the ship’s
arrival. Barbara, the children, and much of Harrier’s gear
crossed the Atlantic aboard the Swedish vessel Kungsholm,
whose white-jacketed crew serenaded Yan on her twentysecond birthday. A gale forced the Kungsholm to arrive 24
hours late, but Raymond and his sister Ruth were on hand in
New York to meet the ship. Raymond and Barbara had now
taken their kids on two cruises that delivered experiences and
lessons that would last a lifetime.
Stan G rayson
All photography from A Genius at His Trade, courtesy Stan Grayson.
New Bedford Whaling Museum seeks sponsors to
support Ray Hunt biography, purchase world’s largest
Concordia yawl model
8
The New Bedford Whaling Museum announces a major
publication and exhibition initiative celebrating the life and
work of legendary yacht designer and racing sailor
C. Raymond Hunt (1908 - 1978).
In October, a richly illustrated and
thoroughly researched biography
of Hunt will be released. As a
complement to the publication, the
world’s largest scale model of a
Concordia yawl will be purchased for
the Whaling Museum’s permanent
collection.
The marvelously readable 300page, hardbound biography is written
by historian Stan Grayson. The
author takes the full and fascinating
measure of Hunt, a largely self-taught
American genius whose informal
education was both a gateway to
invention and a continuing source
of inner conflict and self-doubt. It
will feature beautifully reproduced
plans and contemporary photographs
from the Whaling Museum’s Norman
Fortier Collection, Mystic Seaport,
Hart Nautical Collection, and the
Hunt family.
The Concordia yawl model is one-third scale, exquisitely
and exactingly built by Tom Borges, a local artist, sculptor and
ship’s carpenter, in his New Bedford studio over the course
of seven years. Begun early in 2003, Borges constructed the
model from scratch using Concordia plans together with his
own meticulous drawings and measurements, taken at the
Concordia Boatyard.
As the south coast of
Massachusetts’ premier cultural
institution, the Whaling Museum was
established to foster an interest in
the history of the “Old Dartmouth”
region (now the City of New Bedford,
Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven
and Westport). Selections from its
collection of Norman Fortier original
photographs will beautifully illustrate
the biography and companion
exhibition.
To help underwrite the $165,000
cost of this initiative, the Whaling
Museum is seeking sponsors. Donors
contributing $1,000 or more will
receive prominent recognition in the
book’s benefactor section and on a
plaque mounted with the Concordia
yawl. More information and sponsor
benefits can be found at http://www.
whalingmuseum.org/explore/library/
publications/c-raymond-hunt. May 15
is the print deadline for inclusion of
donor names in the book, so please inform us of your interest
as soon as possible.
Contact Alison Smart, Vice President for Development &
Marketing at (508) 717-6815.
C. Raymond Hunt Initiative Steering Committee and Sponsors
Co-Chairs
John H. Deknatel
James “Sham” Hunt
Brodie MacGregor
MembersDouglas D. Adkins Guilliaem Aertsen, IV Jesse Bontecou John W. Braitmayer King Durant John Eide Stan Grayson Edward Howland Kinniard Howland Llewellyn Howland, III
Patricia Jayson
Edward W. Kane
Stuart MacGregor
Brad Noyes
Ross Sherbrooke
Peter Sweetser
Gurdon Wattles
Bill White
Llewellyn Howland III: on the creation of
the Concordia Yawl and the early owners
To understand the origins of the Concordia yawl, you have to know something about my
grandfather and namesake, Llewellyn Howland. In the early 1920s he was made president of the
New England Oil Company. He was charged with creating a refinery in Fall River to refine crude
oil being shipped up from Maracaibo, Venezuela, in surplus World War I tankers. The tankers
had been acquired by the oil company from its parent holding company at huge markups, which
greatly enriched the investors in the holding company. The tankers did nothing to improve the
bottom line for the New England Oil Company. Neither did the grounding of one of the tankers,
named the Llewellyn Howland, on a ledge off Bailey’s Beach, Newport. Crude oil from Maracaibo
put at end to all swimming at Bailey’s Beach that summer.
When the New England Oil Company failed, Grandpa was out of a job. He never worked in
the corporate world again. What saved him was a substantial inheritance from a rich uncle—not a
huge fortune, but enough to allow him to live well and to own a good cruising boat after years of
making do with boats some of which were considerably less than good. (Grandpa referred to such
boats as Whores of Babylon. Many used them. No one loved them.)
Ironically, this all happened just before the collapse of Wall Street in 1929, meaning that
Grandpa had money to spend during the Great Depression, even as some of his fellow yachtsmen
were jumping from office windows or selling apples on State Street. In fact it was a great time to
be getting into the boat market. Grandpa had plenty to chose from and at low, low prices. He was
also a thoughtful guy and a fine sailor—and a Buzzard’s Bay sailor at that. He had inherited the
plain style values (if not the religious beliefs) of his Quaker forebears. He believed in simplicity
of form and function. He had no interest in owning a yacht that required a large professional
crew. What he needed was a skipper who was willing to chamois the bright work, keep the boat in
Bristol fashion, take it hither and yon, and do the heavy lifting. But Grandpa was in command. He
was always in command.
The boat he came up with (after losing his beloved Colin Archer gaff cutter in the 1938
hurricane) was a perfect example of what an able, thoughtful, physically fit, upper-middle class
Yankee yachtsman entering his 60s would consider building in the late 1930s. He was not
interested in putting on the dog. The joy of sailing was to do it yourself. A boat under 30 feet in
overall length was too small for extended cruising. A boat of more than 40 feet in overall length
was bigger than Grandpa needed. So there you are.
But Grandpa went much further than most people would have. Others would have gone to
John Alden and said, “Give me a 40-foot boat that I can sail.” And John Alden would have said,
“I’ll give you a Malabar XI or an Off Soundings Yawl. I’m having them built in Maine. Good
and cheap.” And they would have been reasonable choices, too. But Grandpa wanted his own. He
wanted to put his ideas into the mix of what was wanted and not someone else’s ideas.
And that was really the genesis of the Concordia Yawl. Grandpa had a clear vision of what
he wanted. He envisioned a stable platform that was fast on all points of sailing; that was dry,
relatively speaking; that sailed more or less on her bottom; that was pleasing to the eye; and that
was reasonably undemanding to sail and inexpensive to build. Ray Hunt and Uncle Wally knew
what Grandpa was thinking. Ray was a very quick learner and Uncle Wally had already been
converted by Grandpa, who was a very domineering guy. This is how the Concordia Yawl came
to be. It was a seasoned yachtsman’s intelligent and understated response to the social, economic,
and sporting conditions of the 1930s.
Of course, Grandpa could have gone to Olin Stephens or S. S. Crocker or Frank Paine, or the
great designer with whom he later became such a close friend, L. Francis Herreshoff. It is not as
if Ray Hunt had been his only or even his most obvious choice to design the Concordia yawl. The
point remains that Grandpa wanted to do it his way and not have someone else tell him how it had
to be done. It was in that spirit that the Concordia Yawl was created.
Why Grandpa rejected Bill Harris’s alternative proposal for the Concordia 33, I don’t know.
Grandpa admired Harris’s work and the Concordia 33 is a really good boat. Grandpa has also
loved owning the Colin Archer pilot cutter Escape, a heavily built double-ender fit to withstand
North Sea gales. But my assumption is that Grandpa never forgot the windward performance of
Tanker Llewellyn Howland
9
Captain Hardy rowing
Llewellyn Howland out to Java
Java
8 Meter from the 1930s
10
the Paine-designed Eight Meter sloop Balek that he owned and raced with success in the early
1930s. Grandpa wanted a boat that was able and fast. He must have decided that the Concordia
Yawl was a better boat for his purposes than the Concordia 33.
The Eight Meter Balek influenced Grandpa. So, I expect, did the one-design Ten and Twelve
Meter classes that were designed by Starling Burgess to the International Rule and which were
built by Abeking and Rasmussen in Germany. Grandpa was in the afterguard of one of the
Twelves, Waiandance, on her delivery run from Halifax to Long Island Sound in the summer of
1928, when she encountered gale force winds and heavy seas. With her long ends and tall Marconi
rig, the boat seemed too lightly built to take this sort of punishment. Actually, she performed just
as well as or better than a more conventional gaff schooner of the period would have in the same
conditions, particularly in windward work.
The 1920s was the decade when fisherman-type Alden schooners and Hand schooners were
the dominant American ocean racers. The belief was that you had to have a heavy, sturdy boat
and rig if you wanted to be safe offshore. But it turned out that wasn’t true. Burgess’s staysail
schooner Advance of 1925 was perhaps the first boat to demonstrate that a properly designed deep
and narrow hull with a properly stayed tall rig could get you where you wanted to go safely—
and quickly. The great Burgess staysail schooner Nina underscored the point by winning the
Transatlantic Race and the Fastnet Race in 1928. Then, in 1930, the Olin Stephens-designed yawl
Dorade began her remarkable ocean-racing career, winning too many races to count in the years
since then.
A Concordia Yawl, when you study it, is a very shapely boat with a lot of meter boat elements.
Ray Hunt had an intuitive understanding of what makes a boat move easily and fast through the
water. The fact that the Concordia has moderate ends, but ends that are not pinched, is an example
of her good design compromise. Not a negative compromise, a positive compromise. Some of the
compromises may have been dictated by financial concerns. None were allowed to interfere with
the integrity of Hunt’s design.
The Concordia’s yawl rig was a compromise, too, but a perfect compromise for the conditions
that prevail on Buzzards Bay. I don’t understand why the rig is currently out of fashion. I can’t
imagine not having a yawl. It makes so much practical sense. You want to anchor for lunch and a
picnic, and you leave the jigger up to keep your head to the wind. Your full main is overpowered
and you don’t have time to reef. Proceed under jib and jigger and all will be well. And the mizzen
staysail is one of the most useful and delightful light sails that ever was. As for the jigger’s lee
shrouds: they are better than lifelines and far handier than a watercloset for the male crewman
seeking quick and convenient relief.
Most of the compromises that went into the design and arrangements for the Concordia were
minor. None were onerous. To be sure, Grandpa disliked the through-hull fittings required for a
marine toilet, but tolerated the existence of a proper head out of deference to his female guests.
(He was a cedar bucket man himself. And proud of it.) He disapproved of running water on a boat,
and self-draining sinks. Yet no one ever had to go without sweet potable water on Java, and the
enameled bowl that was used for washing dishes was also handy for shaving on deck and had a
dozen other applications. Grandpa had no use for portholes that open, because sooner or later the
gaskets in portholes that open lose their integrity and begin to leak.
Other than a battery for the starter of Java’s seldom-used Gray Marine auxiliary and a batteryoperated binnacle light, Java was innocent of electricity. No incandescent lights in either the main
or the forward cabin, or in the head. Oil lamps for riding light and running lights. No spreader
lights. No GPS. No Fathometer. No RDF. No radio of any description whatever. Just a 24-inch
lead pipe for laying off courses on a chart. But, oh! the wonderful smell and glow of a kerosene
lamp at dinner time.
•
So much for Grandpa and Java. Now let me talk a little about Waldo Howland.
Ray Hunt was a genius. But so was Uncle Wally, in a very different way. He was not an
innovator or an intellectual or radical in his world view. On the contrary, his reverence for tradition
made him in some ways a reactionary. Who else but Uncle Waldo would have owned and operated
the same dark green 194l Plymouth Coup for more than half a century? Or built and owned the
schooner Integrity? Who but Uncle Wally would regularly appear at New Bedford Yacht Club
events wearing the blue serge yachting uniform with Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club markings
that had been tailored for his great uncle Matthew Morris Howland in Manhattan in the 1880s? I
could offer other examples.
But Uncle Wally was a genius with people. He knew how to listen. He knew how to encourage.
He knew how, gently, but unerringly, to offer advice and criticism. And he knew how to sell. Lord,
did he know how to sell.
A customer would present himself at Uncle Wally’s Concordia Company office at South Wharf.
“I wish to buy a Concordia yawl,” the customer might say. “I understand they are very fast boats.”
And Uncle Wally would perhaps agree that they were fast boats, but might also mention that
Carleton Mitchell’s Finisterre had been winning a lot of races recently. And then, often as not, the
customer would make his fatal mistake. “Well, I wish to buy a Concordia yawl,” he would insist.
“However, there are a few things about the boat I would like to change, beginning with the layout
of the main cabin and forward cabin. Also the configuration of the cockpit....” That is a sale that
would never get made.
But then a customer would present herself to Uncle Wally with a gentle smile and a strong
handshake. And for whatever reason Uncle Wally would be moved to invite to her to have a look
at the new Concordia just in from Germany and now tied up at South Wharf. And even before
Uncle Wally and this new customer had reached the float stage, Uncle Wally would have learned
that the lady in question had started sailing as a kid in North Haven, and with her late husband had
cruised extensively in a Fishers Island 31, and now she had grandchildren and it was time for a
new boat…and the sales agreement would be signed that afternoon and the lady would store her
new boat at Concordia ever thereafter.
But the purest test of Uncle Wally’s sales genius was his ability to groom a potential customer
over the years it might take for an inexperienced, but enthusiastic sailor to move confidently from
command of a Beetle Cat or a 110 to a small overnighter to a more substantial, but outmoded
cruiser-racer and, then, at last, to the Concordia yawl of his dreams. Uncle Wally knew people and
he knew how to connect with them. But his greatest joy was connecting a caring and committed
sailor with a Concordia Yawl. His greatest regret was selling a Concordia to an owner who failed
to understand or appreciate the traditions of the sea and sailing that the Concordia embodied.
Uncle Wally was no snob or elitist. He had lifelong friends from a wide range of backgrounds.
He made no invidious distinctions. He embraced the world. But Uncle Wally was no fool. He
understood as few do the inner workings of the American class and economic systems. In this, he
and Rod and Olin Stephens, also lifelong good friends, were very similar. And this is why, despite
their mutual regard and personal friendship, they were sworn competitors on the race course and
when it came to selling boats.
But in one respect Uncle Wally actually had an edge on Rod and Olin, because Uncle Wally
has gone to boarding school at Milton Academy and college at Harvard. In the 1920s and 1930s,
and earlier, both institutions had produced a disproportionate number of accomplished racing and
cruising sailors. And at Harvard, Uncle Wally had joined the Delphic Club, whose early members
included John Jacob Astor, 1888, J. P. “Jack”Morgan, Jr. 1889, owner of Corsair, and multiple
representatives of Naushon Island’s amphibious Forbes family, It was during his years at Harvard
and as an active member of the Delphic Club that Uncle Wally’s passion for ocean racing, and his
career in the boat business, was born. That passion was obviously infectious, since a remarkable
14 members of the club have owned Concordia yawls over the years, and who knows how many
members have raced and cruised on the boats?
Consider Uncle Wally in 1930s. He is white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, and a member by
accident of birth of America’s upper-middle class. His school and college mates, and now his
sailing friends, come mostly from the same background, and mostly from New York and New
England, specifically from Manhattan and Boston, though with a few from Philadelphia and points
south and west for variety’s sake. All of them have known and experienced what it was like to
live in the glory years of the Roaring Twenties. All of them are now experiencing a greatly altered
economic and social climate.
Uncle Wally’s contemporaries have gone to schools like St. Mark’s, St. Paul’s, Groton,
Middlesex, Choate, Milton. Most have attended Ivy League colleges, though not all have felt
the need (or given their family’s depleted fortunes, had the money) to graduate. There are great
textile mills and manufacturing empires, prosperous law firms, and vast real estate holdings in
their immediate past. But now, as the Depression grinds on, they must enter a profession or go into
business at a time when the professions are overpopulated and underproductive and a shockingly
high percentage of the American workforce is unemployed. It is a time of gross underutilization of
11
Waldo Howland
12
Actaea
talent and skill. It is a time to go to the race track and bet on a dark horse. It is time to go sailing, if
you have access to a boat.
Inevitably, some of this group drank too much, played too hard, or otherwise fell by the
wayside. (Of course they might have done so even in a booming economy.) But the best of them
bided their time and did the best they could with the tools at their disposal. As the clouds of war
developed, dark, over the east and the west, some of the best of them became Naval Reservists. It
is amazing how many subsequent Concordia owners were among this group, beginning with the
owner of the first German-built yawl, Drayton Cochran. In part, it was a matter of noblesse oblige.
But I believe it was also because these men had been bred to command and were hungry to do so,
and war gave them the perfect opportunity to test their worth.
Uncle Wally wasn’t one of the earliest Reservists. But he did become a naval officer. In fact,
he was the first member of my Quaker family to serve in the military since the Howlands arrived
in America in the 1620s. But while Uncle Wally never saw combat, such longtime Concordia
owners as Henry Sears, Yale dropout, oceanographer, venture-capitalist, and owner of two
different Concordias named Actaea, saw enough combat for a lifetime. I worked for Commodore
Sears on his Concordia 41 in the summer of 1955 and I will never forget his account of being in
command of the DE USS Wesson that was Kamakazied in April 1945 off Motobu Peninsula. The
forward compartments the ship had to be sealed off, along with the bodies of dead sailors, while
the ship crawled stern-first to Kerama Retto for repairs. Sears said he would never forget the smell
of rotting flesh and the days of uncertainty as to whether the vessel would make it safely back to
base.
War destroys people. It also makes them. It helped make Concordia owners like Sears, Cochran,
and my Uncle Wally effective human beings and useful citizens (some, no doubt, more effective
and more useful than others).
The war was a common denominator for many an early Concordia owner. So was family
money. Their fortunes may in many cases have been comparatively modest—or at any rate badly
diminished by the Depression, World War II, and continuing high estate and income taxes. It is
also true that early Concordias were relatively inexpensive by today’s standards. But the point
I am trying to make is that, even if they could have afforded a larger boat with a substantial
professional crew, they chose to acquire a Concordia. They had come out of the war clearer in
their understanding of their priorities and limitations. What they wanted to do was to get back to
racing and cruising. They loved sailing. They loved boats. But they didn’t want a professional or
some guy living aboard to tell them how to run their boats. They had already commanded vessels.
So again what they sought was a command of their own.
•
This was when the Concordia was really born as a class. It didn’t happen right away, but when
Harry Sears and Drayton Cochran put their names on Concordia yawls, their peers noticed. Their
peers also noticed that the price of the first Concordia to be built by Abeking & Rasmussen was
$7,500.
Because my father, Llewellyn Howland, Jr., and Uncle Wally were partners and we lived within
easy walking distance of South Wharf and Concordia Company’s office, I spent a portion of pretty
much every day of my boyhood as a bystanding witness to the unfolding story of the Concordia
class. Having sailed as a boat boy under my grandfather’s professional skipper, Captain Harold
E. Hardy, on Java, I became a kind of utility Concordia fielder for the yard, sometimes assisting
in bringing a new Concordia down to Padanaram from Boston after shipment from Bremerhaven;
sometimes having a hand in the delivery of a boat to her new owner; often crewing on a
Concordia racing in New Bedford Yacht Cub events with an owner who came from away. The
summer before my freshman year at college I served as professional on Harry Sears’ Concordia
41, Actaea, which was then the smallest yacht ever to be flagship of the New York Yacht Club. We
won the Annapolis Race that summer and several important races during the New York Yacht Club
cruise. My sailing life since then has been one long anticlimax.
My Concordia lifetime list is actually quite extensive, as is the life list of Concordia owners I’ve
had the privilege of knowing. It is even longer (by one name), if you include Philip Rhinelander,
first owner of Java’s first sistership, Jobisca. Although I never met Rhinelander, he was not only
a much-respected member of the Delphic Club which I later joined, but also of Boston’s Tavern
Club, of which I have been a member for more than 40 years. At one time the Rhinelander family
appears to have owned whatever portions of Manhattan that the Astors (one of whom, John Jacob
Astor ‘88, was a member of the Delphic Club) did not. They were also among New York’s first
shipbuilders and later produced Episcopal bishops and social butterflies by the score. But Phil
Rhinelander was a solid citizen with a brilliant intellect. He late became a professor of philosophy
at Stanford. Your typical, thoughtful Concordia owner.
Drayton Cochran, another Yale dropout and oceanographer, who ultimately owned, at least
briefly, at least three and possibly four Concordias, including Ina and Sly Mongoose, was surely
the godfather of the class. He was a great sailor and lover of the sea, as well as someone who
grabbed life by both handles. He commanded a DE in World War II and in addition to Concordias
had his own large ocean-going sailing vessels both before and after the war. They don’t make them
like Draytie Cochran any more and I doubt they ever will again.
Racing with Eugene “Bill” Stetson on his two Concordia 41s named Banda was a great
privilege for me, as was racing with George Hinman on the exceptionally successful Concordia
41 Sagola. Like Harry Sears, both men went on to become deeply involved in America’s Cup
competition, Sears, who was at heart a fair and generous man, was afflicted with a sharp tongue
and a terrible temper. Stetson and Hinman were exceptionally gifted helmsmen and tacticians, as
well as models of quiet, considerate, and effective command.
Jack Parkinson, owner of the widely travelled Concordia 39 Winnie of Bourne, later became
a good friend of mine and even wrote a book for me when I was an editor at Little, Brown. But
I never actually sailed with him and stupidly turned down his invitation to cruise on Winnie of
Bourne along the Dutch coast in the summer of l956. Jack was another near Harvard contemporary
of Uncle Wally’s who had gotten an early Reserve commission in the navy. Jack survived both
hurricanes and typhoons while in command of a DE in the later stages of the war. He went on to
write fine histories of the New York Yacht Club, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, and the
Cruising Club of America. His autobiography, Yarns for Davy Jones, should be required reading
for every Concordia owner.
Yet another product of the Naval Reserves was Eugene Sydnor of Richmond, Virginia, on
whose Concordia I used to race quite often. Gene was a nice guy and he certainly loved sailing.
He brought to Buzzards Bay the mannerly conduct of a Virigina gentleman. Unfortunately, his
ability to win races did not match his desire to win, which meant that his hopeful flights up from
Richmond on a Friday night were often followed by regretful flights home following the end of
racing on Sunday. I, too, desired to win. After awhile, I am embarrassed to admit that I transferred
my allegiance to skippers with better records than Gene’s.
And I must mention Dan Strohmeier, owner of two immortal Concordia yawls named Malay.
Dan’s father, a celebrated secondary school headmaster named Bertram Strohmeier, ran the
summer camp at Nonquitt in South Dartmouth that I attended for several happy summers. That
was in the late 1940s, and son Dan was already becoming well known in New England waters
for his success as an S Boat skipper. Then in 1954, Dan, sailing the first of his Malays, won
the Bermuda Race, which made him a near god in the eyes of the Howland family and other
Concordia owners. But it was a bittersweet victory for me. A few days before the start of the race
Dan had hailed me at the New Bedford Yacht Club. He said one of his crew had dropped out.
Would I care to race to Bermuda? For no particularly good reason I said I couldn’t. In my long life
list of regrets, this tops them all.
Just a couple of more names and I will stop. Col. Arthur Herrington and his Concordia yawl
Auda. If Col.Herrington’s name means nothing to you, I urge you to Google him. Meanwhile, I
will offer you a clue as to his identify. I expect you’ve heard of the four-wheel military vehicle
known at the Jeep? Well, the English-born American industrialist Art Herrington designed and
built it. Along with who knows how many other military vehicles, not to mention Harley Davidson
motorcycles and superlative Marmon automobiles. The friendship between Uncle Wally and Art
Harrington makes one of the happiest chapters in the Concordia story. My own opportunity to
cruise with Herrington lasted only a week, but I’ve been dining out on it ever since. He wasn’t a
million laughs. He was something much more extraordinary. He was a great man. Great men own
Concordias.
So do great women, among whom I would mention Thistledown’s Alida Milliken Camp, one
of Uncle Wally’s dearest friends from Milton Academy days on to the end. And Crisette and Sea
Hawk’s Rose Dolan of Philadelphia, Paris, and the world. And Crocodile’s Eleanor Batchelder
Crocker. And Matinicus’s Elizabeth Meyer…. May the list never end.
The Concordia yawl owed many of its enduring qualities to the vision of one man, my
Sheila, the first A&R yawl
13
Winnie of Bourne
Malay with her Bermuda Race Crew
Harrier, about to jibe.
14
Photographs of the Concordias
accompanying Louie’s interview
are by Norman Fortier, courtisy
the New Bedford Whaling Museum
which houses his entitre archive.
The photo of the tanker and the
drawing of the 8 Meter are open
sxource images from the web.
The portrait of Louie Howland is
by John Eide.
grandfather Howland, and the design skills of two others, Ray Hunt and Waldo Howland. It
unquestionably enjoyed its first success among a very small and homogenous group of East Coast
yachtsmen who shared a common ethnic, social, educational, and economic background and many
of the same tastes and ambitions as recreational sailors. At a certain point in the history of the
class, however, the exclusive, almost self-excluding nature of the ownership began to change. That
change seems, happily and properly enough, to have corresponded to changes in the composition
and dynamic of the American population as a whole. And so it continues to change and evolve.
Not nearly fast enough for some of us. Perhaps too fast for others. But healthy and positive change
nevertheless.
What has not changed is the complex way in which a potential buyer becomes a Concordia
owner—or, as the case may be, a former Concordia owner. I say complex, because in fact there is
nothing simple about such a transaction. Even the money that must change hands to make a sale
possible is possessed of mystery: it represents an estimation of worth and value that only very
few human animals would be capable of making, much less being willing to make. Even a person
of enormous wealth might find the ownership of a Concordia extravagant, foolish, or downright
aberrant. And even sailors from modest, perhaps non-sailing backgrounds and with modest
incomes and financial expectations may find --as many have—the will and the way to make the
boat an important part of their life’s journey.
From which there emerges a wonderful paradox. Concordia owners form an inherently exclusive
group—a club or fellowship to which only 102 individuals or partners any one time can belong. But
it is not some malicious discriminatory body that excludes on the basis of creed or color, income or
level of education. Rather, it is group whose members elect themselves. It is a club that redefines its
membership requirements each time a Concordia changes hands.
To new members of the Concordia club, past and current members bring their own experience
of ownership, their own crochets and idiosyncracies, their own list of do’s and don’ts, their
own dreams and ambitions as sailors. To past and current members, new members bring new
perspectives, new prospects, new hopes, new horizons.
Very much a creature of his own time and place, my grandfather Howland could never have
foreseen how many lives the Concordia Class would touch and shape, how many dreams these
boats would inspire, how many challenges and how many rewards they would offer their owners
and their crews.
L lewellyn H owlan d III
I interviewed Louie Howland at his house in Jamaica Plain on a cold day in March, 2015, as we
sat among his books, prints, photographs and models. My questions were few but pointed while
his responses were broad, deep and highly animated. What’s printed above is but a small part of
our conversation. John Eide
No Ordinary Being: W. Starling Burgess,
Inventor, Naval Architect, Poet, Aviation Pioneer
by Llewellyn Howland III
The long-awaited, fully illustrated biography of an authentic American polymath.
Few twentieth-century Americans lived a more creative, eventfilled, and often conflicted life than the Boston-born aviation
pioneer and yacht designer W. Starling Burgess. Orphaned
at twelve, Burgess received his first patent at nineteen, left
Harvard, and, following the suicide of the first of his five
wives, published a book of poetry at twenty-four. Among his
children was the celebrated author-artist Tasha Tudor.
Burgess was a personality of enormous charm, physical
courage, and energy. He was also, as his son lamented, “a
child who will not face hard facts, but will hide from them and
will love the person who shields him from them.” The tension
between his personal and professional life had consequences
both disturbing and tragic—and provides answers to questions,
and insight into events, that cover the entire span of the
twentieth century. Here, at last, is a book that cover the entire
Type
I was a tiny bit disappointed to read in Louie’s book that
Burgess did not design the typeface Times New Roman which
I chose for the body text of the Concordian. For some reason
years ago I was led to believe he had designed it so I thought it
only appropriate for a newsletter devoted to the most beautiful
class of wooden boats to use a typeface created by a yacht
designer.
I should have known better. I taught down the hall from one
of the 25 top type designers in the world. Mark was, and still
is, obsessed with type and I’ve followed the progress of some
of his designs which have taken years to bring to fruition. He
Batekas
If you didn’t see it, Soundings ran a short article, with photos,
by Dieter Loibner in the January 2015 issue about our Batekas,
Small wooden boats, big follies...or not. Loibner covers the
history of the Batekas as well as mentioning Doug Adkins’
restoration of his for Coriolis, Jeff Makholm building a new one
in his living room for Arapaho and Dan Smith building one for
Eagle with the aid of his sons.
You can download the article here: http://www.
soundingsonline.com/boat-shop/on-sailboats/293063-smallwooden-boats-big-follies--or-not
Research
fascinating career of a genuine native polymath.
An editor and antiquarian bookseller, Llewellyn Howland
III is a frequent contributor to Wooden Boat and has written
several books, including Yachting in America (with Gerald
Morris), On the Wind (with Calvin Siegal), and The New
Bedford Yacht Club: A History. He lives in Jamaica Plain,
Massachusetts.
•
No Ordinary Being was published by David R. Godine,
Publisher. The above blurb was taken from the Godine web
site. David, as we know, is the owner of Fabrile.
The book has become a best seller with only a few copies
remaining, I’m told, at the WoodenBoat store and the Mystic
Museum shop. Better get your copy pronto.
JE
15
started his most recent award winning typeface before I retired
seven years ago. Something as readable as Times New Roman
is not a design that one would casually toss out between
drawing fast boats.
While on the subject, and in case you’re interested, the
headline type is Gill Sans, regular, bold, and light, which was
very popular in the 1950s, the heyday of Concordias. The
masthead is set in Adobe Myungjo Standard which comes
closest to having the light, airy feel of the moon, star and cove
stripe.
J ohn Eid e
Classic Boat
Kathy Mansfield’s article in Classic Boat on the history of our
boats published in conjunction with the 75th Anniversary is
now available on line. She covered the Castine and ERR races
and the article includes many great photos.
Go to: http://www.classicboat.co.uk/articles/concordia-yawlsamerican-classic-built-in-germany/
Hank Bornhofft forwarded the following information which is helpful for anyone wanting to do some research in the A&R
records.
For a complete list in numerical order of all hulls built by A&R, you can download this:
https://www.abeking.com/uploads/media/Yardnumberlist_01.pdf
If you are searching for a specific boat by name or number, you can use this:
https://www.abeking.com/Yard-numbers.55.0.html?&L=1
16
Actaea
No. 17 Palatka, FL
Actaea spent the fall and winter of 2014 on the hard for her
annual maintenance. She received new paint for her housetop,
deck, topside, and bottom. I wanted to go with a hard
antifouling bottom paint instead of an ablative but decided to
go with a hybrid, Interlux Pacifica Plus. We will see how it
does. She also had her house and cockpit stripped to carry a
new dark look. I’m liking it so far.
In 1954 Actaea had a staysail added making her a cutter.
This year I added the mast tang but have yet to try it.
Actaea made it back in the water in time for one of the
biggest race events in St. Augustine FL, Race Week 2015, of
which she place 1st, 3rd, and 1st in class overall. She is a very
fast boat. We also entered the Lipton Cup in New Smyrna
Beach, FL, where she place second overall in her class but
would have gotten first if the first place boat would have been
in the proper class. Filing a protest was recommended by the
yacht club and hopefully Actaea will come out on top.
One of the improvements is a new Doyle mainsail that
makes all the difference in the world. She currently sails with
her 50+ year old genoas and reacher which is a testament to
the sail material and maker.
Tony H arwell
17
Eagle
No. 92 Isleboro, ME
We’re looking forward to another great year of sailing the
Penobscot Bay area. Last summer Robin and I (and two dear
friends) had a great experience bringing Eagle back to Maine
after leaving her in South Dartmouth for the previous winter,
but this season we look forward to a simple start to our year by
sailing from Rockport to Islesboro. Our goal is to spend time
rediscovering some of the best sailing waters in North America
and to explore some of our favorite harbors north and eastward
to Bar Harbor.
We had no large maintenance projects this past winter. I
didn’t install a feathering prop, nor did I extend the height of
the mast, and my plans to reconfigure the hull in light weight
cold molded perfection fell through, so look for us to slog
through the water in light winds at this year’s ERR, enjoying
the beauty of the moment, only wishing to stay in the pack of
my fellow Concordians.
Our two sons understand that no one is to marry, divorce,
die, or go into labor during those three days.
Dan and R obin Smith
Winnie of Bourne
No. 11 Darien, CT
18
It was a sparkling blue morning off Nantucket with a fresh
breeze. On board: Jeff Gonsalves, Juan Corradi and his wife
Christina - fresh from their completion of the 2014 Newport
to Bermuda Race on their Concordia Yawl, Westray, and
myself. Winnie was participating in the Classic Yachts division
in a NYYC race from Nantucket to Hadley Harbor. She was
in her final starting sequence on starboard tack just short of
one minute from her start. Our competition, David Wray’s
Hinckley Nirvana and Halsey Herreshoff’s New York 40,
Rugosa were both to weather and astern.
We first saw Dragon, a Swan 48 on port tack over our
starboard bow (Racing Rules of Sailing, RRS 101). We were
on a converging course at an upwind angle bow to bow.
Dragon was not in our division and should not have been in
our starting box (RRS 24.12). When the boats were about 30
feet away Winnie’s only choice to avoid contact was to head
off the wind turning to her port away from Dragon (RRS
14.a.3).
Inexplicably Dragon turned down and accelerated towards
Winnie. At that point Winnie’s fate was sealed. Dragon
withdrew from competition acknowledging fault (RRS
44.1b4).
Dragon’s bow penetrated deep into Winnie’s starboard
forward quarter. The penetration extending from below her
waterline and into her deck beams. The penetration measured
some three feet wide at the top and six inches below. The
only question at that point was not whether she would sink,
but where. In the few minutes of her life that remained we
continued sailing on starboard tack, keeping as much of the
hole above water as possible while attempting to rig the
working jib down the hullside over the hole and started the
engine heading for shallow water. Attempts to cover the
gaping hole were unsuccessful and she went down in about
nine feet of water on a soft sandy bottom just outside of
the channel between the breakwaters inside the entrance to
Nantucket Harbor.
Following our distress call immediately after impact we
were plucked from the water by the Coast Guard’s Nantucket
Station, just as the boat settled beneath us on the sandy
bottom.
Our insurance carrier was informed and they made
1. RRS 10 ON OPPOSITE TACKS
When boats are on opposite tacks, a port-tack boat shall keep clear of a
starboard-tack boat.
2. RRS 24.1
If reasonably possible, a boat not racing shall not interfere with a boat that is
racing.
3. RRS 14 AVOIDING CONTACT
A boat shall avoid contact with another boat if reasonably possible. However,
a right-of-way boat or one entitled to room or mark-room
(a) need not act to avoid contact until it is clear that the other boat is not
keeping clear or giving room or mark-room(.)
4. RRS 44.1 TAKING A PENALTY
(b) if the boat caused injury or serious damage or, despite taking a penalty,
gained a significant advantage in the race or series by her breach her penalty
shall be to retire.
arrangements for a salvage barge to reach us from New
Bedford. The salvage barge was operated by John Roy and
towed by Charlie Pierce on the New Bedford tug Jaguar
(fresh from her accompanying the restored whaler Charles
W Morgan). Crewed and assisted with Concordia Company’s
venerable Steve Lima, the barge arrived around 1500 the
following day, Saturday.
Slack tide was around 1700 and ideal for salvage. On
either side of slack there is a strong current of between two
to two and a half knots. The window for salvage was small.
It would have taken place that afternoon were it not for
interference from Nantucket’s town leaders. They directed the
harbormaster to forbid the salvage operation that afternoon.
Nantucket’s party of the year – fireworks and Boston pops –
was scheduled that evening and the Town leaders did not want
the unseemly and “hazardous” presence of a salvage barge and
tug. The salvage operation had to be postponed for 24 hours.
The additional 24 hours made a bad situation even worse
as if that was possible. Winnie was effectively sand blasted
inside and out by the sand borne current. What the sand didn’t
do, 55 hours of immersion in salt water did. As a final insult
the extremely fine sand found its way into every possible and
imaginable space within the hull. A sad coda to a sad event.
The following day, Sunday, divers went down and placed
slings fore and aft. She was slowly raised allowing the water
to escape. As her attitude on the bottom was at an angle of
something short of 45 degrees it was necessary to halt the lift
and reset the slings. To facilitate this, a temporary patch was
set, allowing Winnie to correct her trim The slings were reset
and the lift completed. To make her secure on the barge the
popits were welded to the deck. Winnie made her return to
Buzzards Bay that afternoon aboard the barge Conrad Roy into
New Bedford Harbor where she was floated once again the
following day and hauled out by Brownell and trailered over
to the Concordia Boatyard.
Many hours of excavation by the Concordia crew
ensued, transplanting some of Nantucket’s fine sand over
to Padanaram. The insurance claim dragged on and three
estimates were solicited as requested by the insurance
carrier, including Concordia Company, Buzzards Bay Yacht
Services and Rockport Marine of Rockport, Maine. After
much deliberation, the decision was made to bring the boat to
Rockport for the rebuild where she now is well on her way to
her former glory. Initial launching is expected in mid-May and
a summer of sailing the waters of Penobscot Bay is planned.
An update of the restoration and rebirth of Winnie of Bourne
will follow in the next edition.
Fleetwood
No. 20 Kiel, Germany
I’m sorry. Unfortunately I don’t have time to write an article
for the spring issue. Nevertheless, these photos are selfexplaining.
19
J . A rvi d Klein
Photo of Winnie sunk by Seth Willhauer
Above photo by Jim Powers, The Inquirer and Mirror, Nantucket
No name
No. 104 Whangarei, New Zealand
I received the following from Doug Cole:
JohnI almost got a photo of hull 104 but at least we have a report
by my good cruising buddy, John Kennell, with whom I sailed
to Tahiti this time last year.
Doug
“Before we left Whangerei, I inquired about Mark Webby
and was directed to a boat house next to Riverside Marina. No
sign of Mark, and I’m sorry I didn’t have my camera with me,
but inside was a Concordia. It looked good, quite a work in
progress, but was in the water, really nicely faired topsides and
bright cabin sides, which were unfinished. Looked like he was
still working on the interior, and there was no sign of a rig. It’s
going to be beautiful when finished. Perhaps you and Margie
can look him up when you are in NZ in October. The guy I was
talking to said Mark lived outside of town.”
For now it’s done. Fleetwood is back on the water. I’m
happy.
To be continued next winter…
K ersten Prophet
Summer racing schedule.
Castine Classic Race, July 30
Camden to Brooklin Feeder Race, July 31
Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, August 1
Corinthian Classic Yacht Regatta, Marblehead, August 8, 9.
Opera House Cup, Nantucket, August 16
Museum of Yachting Classic Yacht Regatta, Newport,
September 4 - 6.
Google each for more info or to register.
Mary Ellen
No. 26 Columbia, SC
20
Restoration continues. I am thinking we will re-launch late
Summer or early Fall. The excitement of getting closer has
given me some great motivation and inspired long days and
evenings of work on the boat.
I completed all of the frame repairs. It ended up being an
almost complete frame replacement. I might have only around
ten original frames left. Because the new frames are bigger
than the originals, and laminated, I felt I could remove most of
the sister frames that were added
over the years. The related screw
holes were filled with wood
dowels and epoxy.
I also replaced part of the
stem. Most of the stem was in
great shape but there were weak
patches in the cutwater (that
part of the stem in front of the
bearding line). My stem is in two
pieces. I believe most, if not all,
the Concordias have two-piece
stems. There is a lower part that
attaches to the keel timber and
an upper part about 8 feet away.
I removed the cutwater of the
lower part at the bearding line
and epoxied new oak in its place.
Next, I had to replace
seven plank ends on the bow.
My planks are in very good
condition except for six or so
inches on the ends touching the
stem of these seven. I decided
to scarf and epoxy on new ends
rather than replace entire planks.
I made this decision mostly
because good planking stock is
really hard to fine. Even with
its age, I think most of my old
planking is better stuff than
the new stock that is available.
Because I am epoxying these ends on, it really is still one
solid plank. Before the days of epoxy, one would never “short
plank” like this.
In the stern, I had to replace some planks entirely. Instead
of using butt blocks, I decided to scarf and epoxy these to the
existing planking. Effectively, I now have some planks that
run the entire length of the boat. These replacements are teak.
I used teak because, serendipitously, there is a major teak
importer in South Carolina. Although it was more expensive
than Mahogany, I could not find any suitable Mahogany near
me. Because I didn’t need much, it was cheaper to buy the teak
locally rather than ship Mahogany. For the curious, I got it for
about $20 per BF and it is tight-grained Burmese teak—really
nice stuff. Yes, I am scarfing and epoxying different species
but G/Flex epoxy supposedly will do it. It will be something to
keep an eye on.
With all the frame replacement, I had replaced almost all
the screws below the waterline and maybe one third of those
above the waterline. The screws above the waterline were in
pretty good condition but, where the frame replacement went
above the waterline,
I replaced the screws
above the waterline.
When I got done
replacing frames, I still
had about 300 more
screws to replace below
the waterline for a
total of approximately
2,500 new screws. An
equivalent amount of
new bungs had to go
on and I just finished
replacing these and
cutting them flush.
Just recently, I
hammered a layer of
rust off the cast iron
ballast, cleaned it with
phosphoric acid, and
then I faired and sealed
the surface with epoxy
and fairing filler. Under
that 1/8 inch layer of
rust, the cast iron ballast
seems really solid.
There are a host of
miscellaneous small
tasks remaining such as
reinstalling the engine,
reworking some of the
electrical systems, and
refinishing the deck. For now, I can get away with limited
repainting and re-varnishing inside the cabin. The remaining
big job is to fair, re-caulk, and repaint the hull. That will be
left for last because I need to swell the planks prior to recaulking and will have to maintain some humidity under the
boat after I do re-caulk to insure it does not dry out again.
I guess I am tempting fate to predict a launch date but I will
take the risk. August 31, 2015 (my birthday). I know most
of you will be starting to think about the end of your sailing
season in August but we still have great sailing days going
well into December.
C harles Thompson
Coriolis
No. 82 Seattle, WA
Coriolis enjoyed an active year in 2014 and is happily headed
into a 34th season with us. She was wooded and lovingly revarnished last spring, escaped a scare with fire in the boatyard
and successfully cruised for several weeks in Desolation
Sound last September. She suffered alarming but non-critical
alternator and battery charger failure but returned safely
to sleep the winter away under her full canvas cover at the
Seattle Yacht Club on Portage Bay in Seattle. Hers is a life of
balanced contrasts: salt water spring to fall and fresh water fall
to spring, tethered to a mooring in summer and nestled in a
slip in the winter, lying north in relative wilderness for half the
year and a real city dweller during the other half. She seems to
accommodate all contrasts well. She will return to West Sound
on Orcas Island in early June as we look forward to time
aboard again during the summer and fall.
Because Coriolis has been with us for so long, we have
behaved like so many other Concordians in trying to think
of small additions to make her more suitable to our needs.
This is surely in the tradition of the class and is approached
by most owners with a clear eye to not intrude into the
soundness of the original design but only to make additions
which are in keeping with the classic character of the yachts
and developments in devices. There are some owners who
disapprove of any changes and one of my dearest Concordia
friends sees any change or addition as an affront to the spirit of
Ray and Waldo. I am sometimes in trouble with him but I like
some enhancements like a hot water tank and pressure shower
in the cockpit. There is nothing better than an outside shower
after a day of salt spray or a brisk swim. To ease my conscience
and placate my classically correct friends, the tank and nozzle
are very well hidden. One thing that I have wished for and
have finally fitted is a bench vise. It is often said that no real
yacht should be without the necessary clamping provided by
one of these for cutting a bolt, gluing a repaired item or just
holding something securely to work on it. The problem aboard
our boats is where to put it so that it is accessible, can rotate
in a way which accommodates different needs and isn’t in a
spot where it poses a hazard with its sharp corners and handles.
I decided to create a removable unit and have fitted it snugly
into the sides of the storage bin in the forward cabin after the
lid is lifted. It fits tightly and could even be screwed down if
necessary. The vise and its base can be used and then removed
for storage out of the way. A medium-sized unit seems just
about right and pictures before and after the installation appear
below. So now Coriolis is a real yacht and my dearly departed
pal George Moffett can be proud of me.
I also wanted to add a special shelf for fancy cocktail
glasses, one that would be attractive and also provide a secure
spot for the crystal vessels and maybe even a decanter. My
bride did not completely approve of this excess focused
on libations with the attendant risk of glass breakage but I
21
persisted. The resulting shelf with room for eight glasses and
a beaker is shown and it is placed on Coriolis to starboard
of the mast on the shelf above the chest of drawers. Almost
every Concordia is slightly different and this location will not
exist on every boat but I enjoy the sparkle and invitation of
the glasses and if you do too I’ll bet you can find a spot. The
base is yellow cedar with the holes drilled and radiused and
the four feet are designed to raise it up enough to keep the
glasses secure. The decanter stopper is tied down with a leather
lanyard and there is a leather cover which can be secured over
the whole fixture in heavy weather. Thus far it has been a
success.
Despite changes to the Pacific Northwest Fleet, Concordias
are still here in the West and thriving.
Douglas A d kins
New Owners - Welcome
Marc Villa, Chilmark, MA. Feather, no. 29.
J. Stephen Weeks, Pocono Lake, PA. Lara, no. 48.
Leif Arntzen, New York, NY. Polaris, no. 71.
Josh Dennerlein, Westfield, NJ. Phantom, no. 93.
Roger Kirby, Brooksville, ME. Sea Hawk, no. 101
Lara
No. 48 Pocono Lake, PA
22
As a newcomer to the Concordia fleet, I bring a whopping 15
to 20 minutes of sailing experience over the last 50 years.
That’s about how long it took Brodie MacGregor and me to
bring Harbinger, the 39-foot yawl I had just purchased, from
her mooring to Barden’s Boat Yard in Marion, MA, for haulout
last August.
Call it kismet: It was at Barden’s (where my father was
working just after World War II) that I learned (quite by
accident) to swim.
Thus began a transformation for Harbinger (now named
Lara and undergoing a nearly completed restoration) and
myself (from retired newspaperman to doting husband of a
drop-dead gorgeous boat).
I had heard of the iconic Concordia yawls when I was a
kid kicking around Biscayne Bay Yacht Club in Miami, FL,
and occasionally crewing on Jacobo Cabassa’s SORC-winning
Larry, Chemung and Jolie Madam during the 1950s and early
1960s.
But I had never seen or set foot on one until early last
summer when, 12 years into a landlubberly retirement, an
advertisement in WoodenBoat magazine led me to correspond
with Stuart MacGregor at Concordia.
There were several false starts (Paul Haley actually surveyed
three boats for me) before my “dream date” with Lara in
Marion in mid-June. My whirlwind romance culminated two
months later when, with help from Stuart and his father, I
bought her.
Lara’s survey was clear: she was suffering from “iron
sickness” and she needed new floor timbers and keel bolts,
along with a dozen or more sister frames and new frame ends
at the very least.
But Lara is drop-dead gorgeous and I am smitten. That
haulout at Barden’s last August began her metamorphosis.
From Marion, she rode on the back of a truck to Maine.
And there, at Traditional Boat, LLC, the boat yard operated
by John Flanzer on his 200-acre farm in Unity, she has been
undergoing what some call the 50-year Concordia rebuild.
In addition to correcting her more serious problems, John
has replaced a half-dozen or so bottom planks, repaired or
replaced all her through-hull fittings, refastened some of her
bottom, rebuilt her cockpit and built her a new rudder. All with
the precise workmanship of a cabinetmaker.
He has installed new plumbing with a pressurized water
system and is rewiring the 12-volt electric system and adding
a new 110-volt shore-current system, including an invertercharger.
Belowdecks, Lara’s galley and head are being completely
renovated, including a custom electric refrigerator. The
Concordia berths in the main cabin have been replaced with
settee/berths with removable seat backs and extra-dense
custom corduroy cushions. The pipe berths forward are being
replaced by a custom double berth to port and an escritoire to
starboard.
John has installed a Raymarine EV-1/ACU400 autopilot
and we are replacing the aging plotter and radar with a
fully integrated system from Raymarine. A Lewmar electric
windlass and custom bronze anchor roller have also been
added.
And so, although Lara is my bride of some eight months
now, I still have “sailed” her only those few minutes with
Brodie. That will all change this summer when she hits the
waters of Penobscot Bay. I can hardly wait! It’s a wonderful
feeling, after all these years, being a part of this great fleet.
Steve W eeks
Traditional Boat LLC
Unity, Maine
Lara, a 1957 39 foot Concordia Yawl, came to us in part for
replacement of her iron fastened floor timbers, her keelbolts
and the remaining iron fasteners in her backbone. Her floor
timbers from the forward end of the mast step to the front
of her engine bedlogs were through bolted to the wood keel
with iron (presumably galvanized steel) bolts, three per floor
timber. Because these yawls were built with a floor timber
for each pair of frames, this amounted to the replacement of
seventeen floor timbers.
The floor timbers were fractured vertically at the location of
the iron bolts. Often these fractures were through and through
(photo 1). The wood adjacent to the iron bolts was severely
affected with iron sickness, exhibiting the characteristic
weak black, friable, charcoal-like, petrified appearance and
consistency radiating out from the fastener (photo 2). Distant
from the iron, the oak of the floor timbers was intact with no
evidence of deterioration or structural compromise.
We lowered the ballast keel in order to be able to through
bolt the new floor timbers (photo 3). The Concordia’s keel
bolts had heads on their bottom ends. After cutting off the
top nuts we drove the bolts down enough to cut off the heads,
then pressed them up with a hydraulic jack. Some bolts
which traversed a significant amount of deadwood could
not be removed without boring around them. The keel bolts
were severely corroded, in some cases with almost no shank
diameter remaining (photo 4). The Concordias have lifting
bolts with eye nuts which were used in shipping them from
Germany These are larger in diameter than the others and
sloped fore and aft towards each other. As we removed the
keel bolts, we replaced them with temporary steel rods in
order to maintain alignment and provide a degree of safety
against the ballast tipping.
The floor timber bolt heads were counterbored into the
underside of the wood keel. Those over the ballast could be
removed from below once the ballast was lowered. Their holes
were drilled out to a larger diameter to remove the surrounding
iron sick wood. Those over the deadwood, were bored out of
the wood keel from above with an elongated hole saw which
could surround the bolt heads. This boring also removed the
damaged wood surrounding the iron fastener. The floor timber
bolts were severely rusted throughout with little residual strength.
Bolt holes were filled with white oak dowels glued with polyurethane
adhesive sealant (3M5200).
Concordia’s floor timbers from the mast step region to several
timbers aft of it have wings which extend up along the frames to
which they are bolted (photo 5). The original winged floors where
sawn out of oak with variable degrees of sweep if any, resulting in
short grain run out weakness, yet they remained intact. The new
floor timbers where built as composites of laminated white oak
winged tops and sawn bottoms. Each floor was patterned in ¼” luan
plywood. With the winged floors, patterning of the top of the floors
was necessary because the sloped sole margin boards landed on the
top of the wings. The laminates were sanded cross grain with course
sandpaper and wiped with alcohol prior to gluing. Each laminate
was wet out with clear epoxy before applying a thickened epoxy
laminating mixture (West System 403 and 406 fillers) (photo 6). The
wings of the new floor timbers were extended to the bilge stringers
in way of the mast step, and about half way to the stringers aft of the
step. Chalk was used for a final tight fit (photo 7).
It is well known that ferrous metal fasteners are a leading cause
of the demise of older wooden yachts, perhaps second only to the
rot caused by rainwater. The damage to the wood surrounding the
iron fasteners in wooden vessels historically was known as nail
sickness. We say that the boat has iron sickness or is iron sick. The
numerous chemical reactions which result in the damage to the wood
have been described in detail by Baker.1 The exposed portion of
the fastener acts as a cathode forming hydroxyl ions (OH-), and the
buried shank of the fastener acts as an anode, forming ferrous (Fe
++)and ferric (Fe+++) ions. The ferric ions react to form iron tannate
dye which gives the characteristic black color, and also to form rust.
Iron ions catalyze reactions which degrade cellulose and wood. As
this localized galvanic reaction continues, chloride and hydroxyl
ions migrate into the crevice between the fastener and the wood.
The hydroxyl ions react with the iron ions to form insoluble iron
hydroxides, thereby removing the hydroxyl ions from solution and
creating an acidic environment. The acid hydrolyzes the cellulose of
the wood destroying it.
The case we present in Lara is an example of extensive iron
sickness requiring the replacement of seventeen floor timbers.
Had the floor timber bolts been replaced with bronze ones decades
ago, the floor timbers would still be in good condition. Evidence
supporting this is the fact that the remainder of the floor timber
oak not adjacent to the ferrous fasteners was in good condition, as
were all of the floor timbers elsewhere in the vessel which had been
fastened with bronze bolts or drifts. The use of the word sickness
brings to mind the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure.” This certainly is true with iron fastened wooden
yachts. Iron or galvanized steel fasteners should be removed before
the surrounding wood becomes compromised. We advocate that they
should be removed from any boat as soon as they are discovered, if
the intent is to preserve the vessel.
1 2
3
5
4
6
J ohn Flanzer
1. A.J.Baker, Degradation of Wood by Products of Metal Corrosion, USDA Forest
Service Research Paper FPL 229, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison Wisconsin
7
23
A Concordia in contemporary literature
I occasionally swap books with a good friend from St. John, in
the Virgins, and when I opened her most recent care package,
the top book had a sticky note on the cover that read: “You’ll
know why I sent this after reading the first line.”
24
After the eye passed over, the shivering Concordia yawl Bliss
was picked up and tossed sideways down into a trough. For a
moment in the dark that had been a brilliant noon two hours
earlier Eliot saw a light on the horizon and knew it was the
light at the top of his own mast. The light flickered and went
black, and there was nothing but the white noise of the storm.
The wooden yawl shuddered deep in her timbers, and Eliot
was catapulted from the cockpit and landed chin first on the
deck and heard his molars shatter. Weightless for a moment as
Bliss dropped, Eliot again cracked down against the deck like
a fish. The bow rose up the face of a mountain of water and
Eliot fell headfirst toward the wheel. His heavy arms locked in
the spokes, and his Adam’s apple crunched on mahogany, and
he was upside down, bare feet to the sky. Bliss paused at the
crest before her bow came down hard, hurtling Eliot backward
through the companionway onto the teak floor below, where
he rolled in a soup of seawater and motor oil and caulking.
That is the opening paragraph from Will You Say Something,
Monsieur Eliot? one of ten short stories in Scar Vegas
And Other Stories by Tom Paine. Bliss is lost at sea after
encountering a hurricane and Eliot in the end dies.
I was curious about how Paine knew Concordias and why
he allowed one to be lost in a storm so I traced him down and
asked. I told him I was the editor of the Concordian and that
anything he had to say about Concordias might be published
and that I was not responsible for your reactions. What follows
is what I got from him.
John E i de
Hi John,
You are a lucky man to own a Concordia. I guess I used
that yacht in the story because it was the most unique and
historical boat I could think of, and only a certain type of
person would own a Concordia.
Now the sort of humor: when I say ‘only a certain type of
man’… in the story, Eliot is, oh, an arrogant, type-A, Waspy,
Wall Street self-made guy. You’d like him and hate him if
you were not from his world, and maybe even if you were!
So when I stuck him on a Concordia, it was, to me, a bit of
characterization. He was, in short, a prick.
Anyway, I lived on St. John most of my adult life. I was
editor of the Tradewinds Newspaper there in the late 80’s, and
then in the 2000’s returned with my wife and daughter to start
and run The St. John Sun Times (2004-2007).
If you were off Hansen Beach1, then you knew Les
Anderson and his beautiful little green Penelope? Based on
a Block Island design? THAT beauty, and Les Anderson,
first introduced me to the world of wooden yachts, and those
unique people who love and care for them. I think it was the
first time I learned of doing something for love, for art, for
beauty… as the care and feeding of these yachts was so over
the top. And then Les taught me a little about the history of
these yachts… anyway, I came to admire the crazy people who
understood wood. As a young writer, it was a lesson in craft
and caring and obsession.
I admit I have a love hate relationship with the guy on the
Concordia. Eliot was based on my Princeton roommate, who
became a master of the universe on Wall Street, while I headed
off to the dream of fiction and some poverty. Ha. I drowned
him, as you see in the story. Ha. Jealous.
Best to your readers.
Cheers,
Tom paine
1. Golondrina was moored off Hansen Beach for many years in the ‘80s. JE
Strouts Point Wharf Company
We continued to work on
Streamer this winter with sister
frame replacement plus nine
more port and starboard the
length of the horn timber. To
accomplish this we removed
the cockpit seats and outboard
bulkheads. We are now
reinstalling with as much of the
original wood as possible.
The exhaust system needed
replacement so we removed
the engine, rebuilt the injectors
and cleaned it up. While the engine was
out we replaced the cockpit drains and
installed seacocks.
The hull was wooded completely and
the ballast was sandblasted to bright steel
and epoxied. We found five areas of bad
planking and scarfed in new sections.
She has had the cotton reefed from the
boot top down and we are beginning to
recaulk. After hull paint the remainder
will be general yearly maintenance.
C ym H ughes
Yankee
No. 37 Liverpool, NY
Stewart, the helm-dog is a Brussel’s Griffon, a breed not often
found here, but a great boat companion. Stewart absolutely
rules Yankee and loves a good windward reach. Seen here with
support from his Aunt Kay.
I am very happy to see
spring approach, since
the past winter here in
Upstate New York has
been insufferable. Last
week, when I went up to
check on Yankee and bring
home some shell blocks
for varnishing, I found the
snow piled up to ten feet
outside her storage shed.
Once inside, I boarded the
boat and ventured below,
only to find the cabin’s
temperature an arctic three
degrees above zero!
We’re already making
plans for summer sailing.
But first there’s all that brightwork to re-coat, bottom to paint
and a hundred other annual chores. If spring ever does arrive.
Stewart and I can’t wait!
I spotted a small patch of bad wood on Yankee’s aftermost
cockpit coaming (near where A&R nameplate is mounted). I’m
now in the process of scarfing in an approximately six inch
by four inch, one inch thick, teak graving piece, cut across,
angular, to follow the natural grain as much as possible, to
(hopefully) reveal only a hairline difference once epoxied in
place, stained and varnished. This should completely replace
the old rotted wood (just a bit larger than one inch in round
area, about one-inch inside the starboard coaming).
I think, of course, it would not be very practical or necessary
to replace the entire coaming plank. The fresh teak graving
piece I’m installing should more than safely replace, fill and
then some, the old cancerous area.
Delaying this work has been due to the cruel, cold upstate
weather here. Just can’t get this and so much other work done
on the boat. The routine stuff is already behind schedule. Even
in Yankee’s modern steel storage building, the temps are in the
low 40s--just too low for me to comfortably get things done.
Isn’t it sort of ironic, that in springtime, after long winters of
storage, when we’re so busy fitting out and prepping our boats
and ready for launch, that it seems we alas, discover some
accursed, bad, stinky soft wood? Always in spring.
Yes. Such revelations seem to come in spring. But
Concordian people always overcome them!
James M. C osgrove
Abaco
No. 102 South Portland, ME
My very big Random House dictionary has twenty­-eight
meanings for the word love. That should be enough, right?
However in the lists of meanings in the types of love, there are
no specific listings for classical music, opera, cars or boats.
For me I fell in love with these things at an early age. Maybe,
in the strictest sense, one cannot fall in love with inanimate
things! Oh well, let’s just call it lust because I lusted for them
long before I could pay for them.
I have had a string of boats over my brief eighty­-five years.
From a home made raft that I put together to lie on and float
through the bogs in front of my grandparents home in Black
Point, Connecticut, I would spend the day floating up and back
with the tides and observe sea life in crystal clear water two
feet below. By the way, my parents didn’t hover over me on
any of my excursions. A few years later I would often rent a
rowboat for a dollar a day to go fishing.
Fast forward a bit and I bought my first sailboat, a twenty
three foot Eastward Ho, that would sleep four tightly. Not love
of boat but love of sailing. After the addition of another child I
bought a twenty eight foot sailboat which filled my needs and
pocket book again but without true love. I began to look for a
boat that pleased my aesthetic eye and also would be a great
sailer. I lusted for, but could not afford, a Concordia Yawl and
I haunted the yard in Padanaram regularly but realistically my
pocket book was not as big as my eyes. Then Waldo Howland
called and told me of one that had out of the water for three
years and under repair after going up on the causeway during a
storm. It had been sister framed because of the damage but still
needed much cosmetic work and not worth the time and money
to bring it back.
I was ecstatic so I bought it and my eldest son and I sailed
it home, stripped it to bare hull inside, sanded, painted and
varnished for two years. When we brought it back to the
yard to show it off Waldo went over her with a keen eye. He
disappeared and then several hours later he returned with a
picture taken many years earlier during her, Rusta IV’s, racing
career. On the back of the picture he had inscribed a note, “It
is grand to see the old girl back as a gold­plater again!” After
years of love and copious quantities of work those words
coming from Waldo was and is the finest compliment anyone
could say about my number one Concordia.
Years later my oldest son began to have wanderlust for
women and I couldn’t maintain her alone so sadly I sold our
boat. I was about to buy a glass boat. Then, the night before, I
got a call from a broker in Camden wanting to know if I was
interested in a truly new and lightly used Concordia with a
diesel. Chip and I were up at oh dark thirty and set off on a
four hour trip to see the boat. He chided me all the way up to
the yard in Stonington, ME, “Dad, be reasonable, you sold
Woodwind because I am leaving. Don’t do this. You can’t
maintain this boat alone and Tad (Don, junior) is too young,
25
26
When we got to the yard, he started his inspection in the
bow and I in the stern. When meeting in the middle about
an hour later we stopped, looked at each other, and burst out
laughing. After another two hours of inspection we got in the
car to go home, nothing was said for about one half hour while
we mulled over what we had just inspected. Then he said,
“Let’s stop in Camden and make a deal, and don’t try to dicker
too hard, I just love that boat!”
For the next nine years Chip would come home or I would
sail the boat to where he was and we would lovingly give her
a spring facial; a whole family project. While sanding the
beautiful tumblehome sides I would have to look around the
yard to make sure no one would see the expression on my
face; pure joy!
This boat was so pleasing to the eye and to work on that it
became total love for me, not lust, because she belonged to
our family. It was beyond measure to have my bride, the love
of my life, and my children love her as much as I did. By this
time my youngest son, Tad, began his life-long love of this
wooden wonder.
Now, for the last time, fast forward many years and Tad
came to me with the idea of buying a burned out Concordia,
considered a “total” by the insurance company. Now it was
my turn to drag my feet and point out all the reasons he should
not buy it. But, love for this beautiful siren called a Concordia
Yawl runs deep in our DNA suppressing all logic and reason.
He next surprised me by telling me he already owned it. I
knew he was a fine finish carpenter yet my heart sank the first
time my eyes saw it.
Two years later, with a new cabin top, cabin side, new
decks, new bridge deck, floor timbers, keel bolts and
deadwood bolts and replaced ribs, I am willingly and happily
involved. I even work on Abaco though these old bones creak
now and then. It is my opinion that the boat will be better than
at any time since new. Everything so far has passed the most
critical test of inspection by knowledgeable yachtsmen and
boatbuilders. Tad and his wife Cheryl both love the boat and
have put thousands of hours into her restoration.
Now mister Random House, what were those twenty eight
definitions of love? Here are mine; wife, children, family and
last but not least the only non­breathing, living family member,
a Concordia forty foot yawl! Long may she be the object that
is lusted for and loved as these three in our family.
Finally, the same dictionary tells us that the word concordia
refers to the ancient Roman goddess of harmony and peace.
Who wouldn’t love a goddess?
Donal d L ippoth , S enior
Full circle.
It was 1967 and I had just turned five. My brother was 14. I
spent most days roaming the boatyard for I wasn’t much help
on the boat. I occasionally spent half hour or so working on
the boat until he got tired of watching me so he’d find me a job
that I couldn’t pester him on. Soon, I would just sort of drift
off and disappear in the boat yard. As I grew up my jobs went
from filling the seams with compound to actually sanding in
preparation for paint.
I was beginning to admire the long graceful overhangs of
New York 40s and 50s, the Malabar schooners and of course
the Concordia yawls. Their lines were certainly more graceful
than our Eastward Ho. A few years later I was lucky enough to
have my father buy one of those beautiful Concordia yawls.
Now, 47 years later, I’m the proud owner of a 39. My
father, now 85, says he’s half the man he used to be, but he’s
certainly more active than most 65-year-olds I know. So in
a way he is like me when I was five. He doesn’t have the
stamina he used to have and it’s not that he becomes bored but
he actually becomes physically tired and has to wander away
to rest. Sometimes I’m sure that he feels that he is a hindrance
to the progress of Abaco’s completion for sometimes it seems
that more work gets done when I’m not helping him or he’s
helping me out. That may or may not be true but one thing
I know for sure, like when I was a boy in the boat yard my
father was happy to have his boys working with him whether
we were a hindrance or not, as I am today relishing the
moments that we are spending together. Sometimes I might
get on his nerves and vice versa but these times will always be
remembered locked in time when I see what we accomplish
together. So I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being able to
work with your dad/family at this stage of our lives I am lucky
to have a siren calling so that we can spend this time together.
I am also most lucky to have an understanding wife /partner
who can deal with the testosterone in the shed and can give it
right back to the misbehaving boys.
Don (Tad ) Lippoth, J unior
27
A few more Norman Fortier photos.
Clockwise from the upper left:
Java on her mooring;
Memory;
Sumatra;
A New Bedford YC Race;
Niam.
the
John Eide
Box 5005
Portland, Maine 04101
Concordian
Ray Hunt. New Books. Old Photographs. Early Owners. A Chat with Louie. More.